Cost-Benefit Analysis of Alternative Ocean Observing Platforms for Coastal Water Quality Monitoring

The Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA) has been conducting an ambient marine monitoring program since 1992 to monitor the impact of treated municipal waste water effluent on the water quality of Massachusetts Bay. The monitoring program looks extensively at possible effects of the discharge, including eutrophication impacts such as nuisance algal blooms and hypoxia, and ecosystem impacts on plankton communities. MWRA intends to install a system for continuous real-time water quality monitoring, possibly in the form of an instrumented mooring. If successful, the system will improve the quality of the monitoring data and may reduce the need for MWRA's shipboard surveys (12/yr). To rationally evaluate alternatives, a review of the current state of the science of sensor and mooring systems technology along with a cost-benefit analysis was performed